Ireland votes resoundingly to repeal abortion ban

Posted May 26, 2018 3:01 a.m. EDTUpdated May 26, 2018 1:28 p.m. EDT

By Hilary Clarke and Kara Fox (CNN)

DUBLIN, Ireland (CNN) — Ireland has voted an emphatic "Yes" to amend the country's constitution to enable legislation that would allow women to have an abortion in a historic and emotionally charged referendum.

With a high turnout Friday of 64.13%, 66.4% voted for the amendment, and 33.6% against, according to the country's Referendum Commission. The results Saturday defied earlier projections that it would be a tight race.

Only one county voted no -- the rural and religiously conservative Donegal in northwest Ireland.

The vote signifies a resounding victory for the government of Leo Varadkar, the Prime Minister, or Taoiseach as the office is called in Ireland.

"What we've seen today is the culmination of a quiet revolution that has been taking place in Ireland for the past 10 or 20 years," Varadkar told Ireland's national broadcaster RTE earlier Saturday on the strength of exit polls and results of the first official votes.

"This has been a great exercise in democracy, and the people have spoken."

Thousands of people packed the square in front of Dublin Castle as abortion rights politicians, including Varadkar, also joined the celebration.

He told Sky TV he expected legislation to be voted through by the end of the year.

"I feel enormous relief and great pride in the people of Ireland who didn't maybe know what they thought until they were finally asked the questions," Ailbhe Smyth, a longtime women's rights activist, told CNN.

"It has been a long and very hard road, but we never lost sight of this because it's so central to the existence, and the selfhood and personhood of women to have that control of our own bodies."

The Eighth Amendment, which was added to the constitution following a referendum in 1983, banned abortion in Ireland unless there was a "real and substantial risk" to the mother's life.

Repeal of the amendment has completed a circle of sweeping social reforms in the European Union nation that fly in the face of the traditional teachings of the Catholic Church, from contraception to divorce, and most recently same-sex marriage.

Roscommon, in the rural interior, the only county to say no to same-sex marriage, also voted yes in the abortion referendum.

Thousands of women working abroad returned to Ireland to cast their vote.

Those opposed to abortion vowed Saturday to take their fight now to the Irish Parliament, where lawmakers will have to bring about legislation allowing for terminations in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy -- and later in cases where there is a risk to the mother's life or the fetus is not expected to survive.

"We will hold the Taoiseach to his promise that repeal would only lead to abortion in very restrictive circumstances. He gave his word on this, now he must deliver on it. No doubt many people voted for repeal based on the Taoiseach's promises in this regard," Cullen said at a press conference Saturday.

The death of an Indian dentist ignited the abortion rights campaign in Ireland. Savita Halappanavar, 31, died in 2012 because of complications from a natural miscarriage after abortion was denied to her.

Voters over 65 were the only age group overall not supporting the repeal of the amendment.

The Irish Republic's vote will likely put pressure on Northern Ireland to change its abortion laws, too. Despite Northern Ireland being part of the UK, the 1967 Abortion Act legalizing abortions never applied there, and even victims of rape and incest are forced to travel to mainland Britain if they want a termination.